Innocents Killed?Despite enormous
protections offered by the federal and states constitutions throughout this
country, many persons have been executed despite of their innocence. I offer my
list of names and some evidence: I have formatted the list as follows: [1] the
first section is unequivocal near misses where the person was cleared of all
charges and came within a few days of execution -- if a truly innocent person
can get this close than logic dictates that the line may well have been crossed;
[2] the second section is cases where the federal courts have cleared the person
but the case remains active -- in the case shown the person would be dead under
the new habeas changes although there innocence has been vindicated by the
federal courts; [3] cases of high probablity of innocents being executed;[4]
cases of probabe innocnents being executed; [5] cases where execution occurred
despite evidence of innocence (regarded by many as strong, but not necessarily
by myself -- yes that is a disclaimer); [6] cases where a person was executed
despite another being convicted on exclusive theories of the case; [7] Cases
were execution dates were set, conviction reversed in light of evidence of
innocence, and the case is in legal limbo. Here we go. (This list is by no means
complete and I will from time to time be adding more to it).
[1] I will
start with those cases where a person who was released for reasons of
unequivocal actual innocence and had at lease one real execution date that was
stayed within a week of the execution date -- the assumption being if the person
got this close someone could have slipped through:
[A] Clarence Brandley (Tx) -- "Since your the nigger your
elected" was the famous quote from this case where the Texas Court of
Criminal Appeals, by Pickett, J., concludes that "the color of Clarence
Brandley's skin was a substantial factor which pervaded all aspects of the
State's capital prosecution of him." He received his first stay 5 days
from his scheduled execution. His second stay was granted 13 days from his
final walk.
[B] Randall Dale Adams (TX) -- Adams was found guilty
beyond a reasonable doubt of killing a police officer. Sentenced to death,
his appeals were rejected. Just seventy-two hours from execution, by a
stroke of good fortune, it was established that the wrong man was about to
be put to death. His case was highlighted in the movie in "A Thin Blue
Line."
[C]Andrew Lee Mitchell (Tx)-- case was tossed on appeal
due to suppressed evidence and other evidence of innocence, he was released
from custody in 1993 and has not been reindicted -- he came within 48 hours
of execution.
[D]I haven't included details of the other 60+ person
unequivocally cleared of the murders for which the were sent to death row
and how close they came to the executioner's prick/shock due to space/time
limitations. For the list check out www.essential.org/dpic.
[2]
Cases where the writ of habeas corpus has been granted -- case pending retrial.
[A]Lloyd Schlup (Mo) -- had his conviction vacated earlier this
year after the Supreme Court granted him the right to file a second habeas
petition finding he had a colorable claim of innocence. The standard relied
upon by the Court in Schlup's case for being able to file a second habeas
petition was changed by congress shortly after the decision in that case --
under the new provisions Schlup would be dead as the new habeas bill upped
the standard of innocence required to be able to file a second petition from
"colorable claim" (roughly 50.1% chance of innocence) to
"clear and convincing" (roughly 60-70% chance of innocence) a
standard which all involved state Schlup had not met at the time of the stay
proceedings, but was later able to produce. Schlup came within hours of
execution. The Missouri AG's office has decided not to appeal, the DA is
promising to reindict, but I haven't seen it yet.
[3]Cases where a
person has been executed despite high likelihood of innocence:
[A}Roy Stewart (Fl) -- was convicted of the murder of a woman in
1979. The sole witness to testify against him stated that he had confessed
the killing to her. But some years after the trial she admitted that her
story was not true, and was given for the sole purpose of avoiding a jail
sentence herself for forgery and possession of marijuana. She was released
from jail following her testimony at Stewart's trial and was paid a cash
reward for her false story. Three state's Attorneys who prosecuted Stewart
later came forward opposing the execution for lack of evidence. One of the
state's Attorneys said, "The state completely botched the investigation
of the scene. They threw away critical evidence. I came to learn... that
they also had not pursued other defendants who had much more legitimate
contact with the decedent than Mr. Stewart." However, even over the
objections of the prosecuting attorneys, Roy Stewart was executed on April
22, 1994.
[B] Jesse Tafero (Fl) -- was sentenced to death along with
Sonia Jacobs for the murder of two policemen at a highway rest stop in 1976.
A third co-defendant received a life sentence after pleading guilty and
testifying against Jacobs and Tafero. A childhood friend and filmmaker,
Micki Dickoff, then became interested in Jacobs case. Jacobs's conviction
was overturned on a federal writ of habeas corpus in 1992. Following the
discovery that the chief prosecution witness had failed a lie-detector test,
the prosecutor accepted a plea in which Jacobs did not admit guilt, and she
was immediately released. Jesse Tafero, whose conviction was based on much
of the same highly questionable evidence, had been executed in 1990 before
the evidence of innocence had been uncovered.
[C] Willie Darden
(Fl)-- was convicted of the murder of a store owner during an attempted
robbery. Alibi evidence from two completely independent witnesses came to
light in 1986, showing that Darden could not have committed the murder. This
new evidence was never considered by the courts on its merits, but was
dismissed on technical grounds. Even before this new evidence emerged, the
U.S. Supreme Court was bitterly divided over the case and upheld the
conviction by a narrow five-to-four majority. The dissenting justices
criticized the majority for being "willing to tolerate a level of
fairness and reliability so low it should make conscientious prosecutors
cringe." Willie Darden.was executed on March 15, 1988.
[D]David
Spence (Tx) -- Prosecution argued that a certain drug dealer (Muneer
Deeb)wanted several people dead and then presented evidence that linked the
targets of the murder for hire to Deeb. The prosecution than argued that
Spence killed the wrong people because he mistook them for the intended
target. In addition to the evidence admitted into evidence (including
someone else's confession to the crime) in the initial trial and federal
habeas proceedings, additional witness have come forward since that time and
DNA evidence of another person (the source being neither those convicted of
the crime nor the victims) found on the victims body. Deeb, the person who
supposedly hired Spence to do the killing, had his capital conviction
reversed on appeal and was later found not guilty by a jury of his peers
using much of the evidence uncovered by Spence's attorney. For more details
see Bob Herbert's articles from this past summer in the NYT, as well as
HBO's -- The Execution machine.
[E] James Adams (Fl) -- Adams was
convicted of first-degree murder, sentenced to death, and executed in 1984.
A witness who identified Adams as driving the car away from the victim's
home shortly after the crime was later discovered that this witness was
angry with Adams for allegedly dating his wife. A second witness heard a
voice inside the victim's home at the time of the crime and saw someone
fleeing. He stated this voice was a woman's; the day after the crime he
stated that the fleeing person was positively not Adams. More importantly, a
hair sample found clutched in the victim's hand, which in all likelihood had
come from the assailant, did not mach Adams' hair. Much of this exculpatory
information was not discovered until the case was examined by a skilled
investigator a month before Adams' execution.
[4]Cases where a
person has been executed despite evidence of probable innocence (the weight of
the evidence is subject to dispute, although a strong case can be made for
innocence):
[A] Ellis Felker (Ga) --Felker was the main suspect and was put
under police surveillance within hours of her disappearance, which occurred
fourteen days before the discovery of her body in a creek. An autopsy then
put her death within the previous five days. However, when it was realized
that this would have ruled Felker out as a suspect because he had been under
police surveillance for the previous two weeks, the findings of the autopsy
were changed. Attorneys representing Felker during the appeals process
showed notes and photographs of Ludlam's body to pathologists who
unanimously concluded that she could not have been dead for longer than
three days. Unfortunately, Felker discovered this information too late as
Congress changed the standard of late round appeals just prior to Felker
filing his list appeal.
[B] Walter Blair (Mo.) -- claims of
innocence were never heard because he presented them to late (successor
habeas proceedings). Blair produced seven affidavits which had shown his
actual innocence of the crime. Five of the affiants alleged that another
man, Ernest Jones, admitted in their presence that he had killed the victim
and framed Blair. Unlike Herrera's case (see below) these did not rely on
hearsay, and there were no internal inconsistencies on the relevant points
among the seven affidavits. There also was a plausible explanation for the
delay in bringing forth the evidence--all seven affiants testified they
feared Jones because they knew he previously had committed multiple murders.
One affiant was a trial witness; her affidavit claimed that she had
falsified her trial testimony at Jones' direction because she feared him.
The petition also alleged prosecutorial misconduct, allegations, that were
likewise never fully aired.
[5]Cases where a person has been
executed despite evidence of innocence (the weight of the evidence is subject to
dispute, although a case can be made for innocence):
[A] Roger Coleman (Va) -- A case in constant controversy,
evidence produced in the late-innings of the appeal seemed to cast doubt on
Coleman's guilt in the murder of Wanda McCoy and rather pointed to Donney
and Michael Ramey, the former reportedly having admitted his guilt to three
woman while brutally raping them in manner consistant with the manner in
which the decedent was raped prior to her death. Nell Shortridge whose son
was a friend of Donney and Michael Ramey, found a plastic garbage bag in the
back of his pickup truck. Inside it he found a bloody sheet, a flashlight, a
pair of scissors and two cowboy shirts. The sheet had "more blood than
a person could lose without having to go to the hospital," said Nell
Shortridge, who reported the bag and its contents to a county sheriff. But
he said he never inquired further about the items and they were eventually
thrown into a landfill.
[B] Joseph O'Dell (Va) -- Sperm found in the
victim's body (Helen Schartner/44) had different genetic markers than
O'Dell's. Other evidence used to bolster O'Dell's plea included the lack of
physical evidence; evidence found at the scene -- cigarettes, footprints and
tire tracks -- not matching O'Dell's personal effects; and an alleged
confession to Schartner's murder by double murderer David Pruett, who was
executed in December 1993. Evdience linking him to the murders, in light of
a DNA test was a "3-probe DNA match between Schartner's blood and the
bloodstains on (O'Dell's) blue jacket,'' however when studied by four expert
witnesses for both the defense and prosecution and that the tests were
''found to be in error because. . . the procedure and test were outdated
according to FBI standards.''
[C] Leonel Herrera (Tx) -- presented
affidavits and positive polygraph results from a variety of witnesses,
including an eyewitness to the murder and a former Texas state judge, both
of whom stated that someone else had committed the crime. However, the
Supreme Court ruled that innocence alone does not justify a federal hearing
on this evidence nor was federal habeas relief available for mere innocence.
[D] Robert Nelson Drew (Tx) -- A second accused, Ernest Puralewski,
was convicted of the murder and sentenced to 60 years' imprisonment.
Puralewski later came forward with a signed affidavit in which he stated
that he alone had been responsible for the crime: "I am the person who
murdered Jeffrey Mays and Robert Drew is innocent." Robert Drew's
lawyers sought a new hearing so that this late evidence could be considered
on its merits, but their requests were turned down.
[E] Barry
Fairchild (Ar) -- sentenced to death in August 1983 for the kidnap, rape and
shooting death of Marjorie "Greta" Mason. The conviction was based
solely on a videotaped 'confession'. Blood, hair, and semen samples could
not be linked to Fairchild. The 'confession' video shows Barry Fairchild's
Head wrapped in bandages, indicating he was subject to severe beating. 13
other black men were questioned by Pulaski County Sheriff Tommy Robinson and
Deputy Larry Dill and also subjected to extreme physical and mental torture.
Michael Johnson, questionend at the same time as Fairchild, states he heard
Fairchild's screams and noises similar to beating using a baseball bat.
Sheriff Tommy Robinson and Deputy Larry Dill denied ever using excessive
force to obtain confessions. Two Federal Court judges, while upholding the
death sentence, have ruled that Fairchild was not the actual killer.
[6] Cases where a person has been executed despite someone else
being convicted under a different theory of the case:
[A] Jesse Jacobs (Tx) -- Jacobs had been convicted and sentenced
to death after the state had put on evidence to show that he was the actual
killer in an abduction ending in murder which also involved a co-defendant.
At the later trial of the co-defendant, the state reversed its story and
said it was the co-defendant, not Jacobs, who pulled the trigger. The DA who
put him on the row later fought to get him off the row, but the state AG's
office refused.
[7]I have not included these miscellanious persons
as the cases are in limbo, all have been close to getting off, all are pending
new trials in light of substantial evidence of innocence, all have had active
execution dates.
[A]Thomas Thompson(Ca) case for the reason his conviction for
murder still stands, just the aggravator has been kicked out -- well at
least for now. Thompson came within 72 hours of execution.
[B]Curtis
Kyles (La) -- whose case was reversed by the Supreme Court in 1995 and has
now been retried twice with juries hanging both times.
[C]Joe
Spaziano (Fl) -- numerous execution warrants despite very flimsy evidence in
his case and substantial evidence of innocence, conviction was flipped in
1996 (twenty years after his conviction) and he is awaiting retrial. This
list is far from being all inclusive as to people and facts. I'm sure people
will in short order be flaming me about this list (on both sides), but for
now the first draft is out and I will be building from this list and adding
(or even subtracting) from the list as warranted.
